How to light a riding area at basic yard

[ellis9905]

So pony kept at a very basic yard.. As the dark nights are creeping in its getting harder for my daughter to school her pony...

We have a section of field fenced as a school and I'm looking for options to put some lighting. I'm not looking for anything amazing- just something that will allow my daughter to school as its getting dusky..

I've been looking at some freestanding rechargeable floodlights - relatively small.

But wondered what any of you that don't have big floodlit schools use??

 

[CeeCee]

Like you I have quite basic facilities, I've fenced off a 20x40 arena, picking the most level and driest part of the field.

For lights I use something similar to these:
http://www.screwfix.com/p/double-tripod-site-light-2-x-400w-240v/71555

I use them with a small generator that I got off ebay for about £100. (I did a few training sessions in the daylight to make sure she didn't freak out at the sound of me starting the generator). Do make sure the generator can power the lights, for example the above lights would require 800w so you'd need a generator capable of a least 1000w. The trick with the lights is to get them as high as you can and angle them down.
Handy for me as I can pack everything in the wheelbarrow and lock it away.

Definitely the cheapest and most cost effective option for me and worked well last winter.

 

[khalswitz]

If it's just for 'dusky' and not full-on dark, then why not use your car headlights? Then you have a great excuse to sit nice and warm in the car, possibly with a thermos flask and something nibbly, whilst child rides.

 

[Sunshine]

A lot depends on how your local council would be towards permanent lights. However, if you can put up some tall posts (we use scaffold poles on fence posts) you can do like we do with the leisure battery.

Our lights are 240v LED floodlights (not the cheapest to buy, but you'll see why we use them) and we run the cables to a weatherproof box where we keep a 12v leisure battery. Then whenever we want to use the lights we plug in the 240/12v inverter between the battery and the lights. It is completely silent, lightweight -about the size of a 1kg margarine tub and easy to pick up and put away. For the last few winters we have taken the battery home once a month or so to charge up but I may look at getting another solar panel for this year.